Blue Origin has leased the launch site since 2015 in order to build a new launch site for launching Blue's orbital rockets. Orbital launches are expected to begin from LC36 no earlier than 2020,[3] and the first launch vehicle slated to launch there is New Glenn, under development by Blue Origin since 2012.[4]

Historically, the complex consisted of two launch pads, SLC-36A and SLC-36B, and was the launch site for the Pioneer, Surveyor, and Marinerprobes in the 1960s and 1970s.[5] There were a total of 68 and 77 launches from pads 36A and 36B, respectively, while the US government operated the launch complex in the first five decades of spaceflight.[6]

The Atlas rockets launched from Complex 36 were subsequently superseded by the Atlas V launch vehicle which launches from Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral beginning in 2002.

Contents

LC-36A was the scene of the biggest on-pad explosion in Cape history when Atlas-Centaur AC-5 fell back onto the pad on March 2, 1965. The accident spurred NASA to complete work on LC-36B which had been abandoned when it was 90% finished.[citation needed]

In 2015, Blue Origin signed a long-term lease of launch site from Space Florida for launching Blue's orbital rockets, after Space Florida had previously leased the facility from the USAF in 2010 in order to facilitate commercial use of the land and facilities since the Air Force no longer required use of the launch complex. Moon Express and Blue Origin shared LC-36, delineated into LC-36A and LC-36B respectively, until Moon Express announced its relocation to Launch Complexes 17 and 18 in 2016, allowing Blue Origin full use of the LC-36 facility. As of 2016[update], orbital launches are expected to begin from LC-36 no earlier than 2020.[3]

The legacy Atlas-Centaur umbilical towers of both pads were demolished in 2006.[12] The mobile service towers were both demolished in controlled explosions on June 16, 2007. Tower B was demolished at 13:59 GMT (09:59 EDT) and tower A followed twelve minutes later at 14:11 (10:11 EDT).[13]

Blue Origin has leased the land[when?] at Launch Complex 36 from the Floridastate space agency, Space Florida, and will manufacture their new BE-4-powered orbital launch vehicle at the nearby Exploration Park, also a part of the Space Florida land complex.

By October 2015, the pad design and configuration was not yet known.[6] Blue broke ground for the facility to initiate construction activity on the site in June 2016.[17]

By March 2016, the first launch of the Blue orbital launch vehicle New Glenn was estimated to be no earlier than 2020[3] and that target date had not changed by the time high-level specifications for the new launcher were unveiled in September 2016,[4], nor by the time construction of the launch site was well underway in September 2018.[18]

The New Glenn will be a very large 7.0-meter (23 ft)-diameter vehicle. The first stage will be powered by seven BE-4methane/oxygen engines producing 17.1 meganewtons (3,850,000 lbf) total thrust at launch. The first stage will be reusable and is designed to land vertically.[4]